http://troublemakingpunk.org/2014/04/19/steubenville-rape-and-the-long-struggle-to-change/ "As power relationships slowly change, sexist images are challenged, and women’s voices are heard, perhaps we can hope that, even if we haven’t yet stopped the sexist violence, it goes unacknowledged and unpunished a little less often. A small victory, but a critical one."

1. troublemakingpunk.org
Love, Liberation, & Eco-feminist Boat Rocking
Steubenville, Rape, and The Long Struggle to
Change
April 19, 2014 //
1
So, I just heard on the radio that authorities are finally looking into sexual assault charges against a
Florida college star athlete for an incident that took place last year. Over and over again I’ve seen
sexual assault cases against star athletes conveniently swept under the rug. You can bet the teenaged
athletes who, at a 2012 party, assaulted a young teen girl in Steubenville, Ohio, have seen it too.
As a man who committed what I consider attempted sexual assault more than once as a teenager, I
have watched the events unfolding over the last year and a half in Steubenville with great interest
and much sadness. Whether we examine the cultural training and influences for boys like me a half a
century ago or for those in the present, media messages and unequal power relationships that
promote objectification of women and sexual aggressiveness of men abound. Sexist stereotypes and
rape fantasies are reinforced day after day.
The films of my grandparents’ time and the films and television shows of mine promoted rape and
sexual assault, too. The heralded 1939 film, Gone With The Wind has a celebrated scene where Scarlett
has made her disdain clear to her husband, Rhett. He attacks her, picks her up against her will and
takes her upstairs to … what? The next scene we see Scarlett lying in bed, smiling. What does that
mean? What’s the lesson drawn? When, fifteen years later, Marlon Brando, in the acclaimed film, On
The Waterfront, violently attacks Eva Marie Saint, and the viewer sees that she evidently wanted him
to do that, what does it mean? What does a thirteen year old boy learn from that? When three or
four decades after that Nicholas Cage does the same to Cher in the award winning, Moonstruck, and
she decides she loves him, what in the world is the movie maker telling boys about women, and
about how men should behave? So called serious films continue to perpetuate this image of the
heroine waiting to be taken by the strong, impetuous hero. The scores of comedy films made over the
last ninety years that have implied that it is a good idea to ply women with alcohol to “loosen them
up” also continue to provide lessons today.
When most video games marketed to teen boys depict women as either helpless damsels who must
be saved, or strong, evil women who must be vanquished, what is the message the boy gets? When
thousands of rap songs constantly label women as “b***ches” or “hos”, or as their body parts, who
simply are there to please the males, what does the eleven year old boy learn about girls and women?
What messages do the girls get about themselves?
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2. We live in a patriarchal, sexist culture where women hold less than 20% of our elected offices on
average, less than 5% of CEO positions of our largest corporations, less than a quarter of the top
positions in our cultural institutions. Most film directors, most video producers, most advertising
executives are men, while single mothers are the largest group of adults in poverty. These conditions
help determine whose vision defines our world—what’s valued as important, what’s not.
Over one-third of teen girls report violence from their male partners.Thousands of women each year
are raped or battered by guys they know. In one survey it was reported that 23% of women who
served in the Iraq/Afghanistan wars were victims of at least one attempted sexual assault by their
male comrades. At the same time, the markets for violent pornography and sexual slavery are at all
time highs.
This is the environment in which these teen boys committed horrid crimes of violation and
degradation against an innocent young woman. This is the environment in which a community of
youths and adults supported and tolerated those crimes. It was a similar environment almost a half
century ago when my friends and I crossed similar boundaries, and were not held accountable. As
bad as it is now, it was worse in some ways then. The voice of women could barely be heard. That
was before brave women came together to create rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters,
before women rallied to challenge “the problem with no name,” and demanded liberation for women
and the right to control their own bodies.
The voices are getting louder, but it is still hard to be heard over the cheers for a game winning
touchdown catch or the dissonant noise of one more porn video or Hollywood flick that swallows the
landscape.
As I write this and you read this, women in our country are being battered; women in our country are
being raped; women and girls in our country are being sexually harassed, and boys are being taught
that either it’s okay or it doesn’t matter that much. We’re also not being taught that this is not simply
a “violence against women” problem, but something even bigger. We are not being taught that this is
an inevitable result of living in a patriarchy. We are not being taught that until we fully challenge the
distorted masculinity that comes from living in a dysfunctional patriarchal system, we will never
reach the roots of the violence. In the meantime, we do what we can.
As power relationships slowly change, sexist images are challenged, and women’s voices are heard,
perhaps we can hope that, even if we haven’t yet stopped the sexist violence, it goes unacknowledged
and unpunished a little less often. A small victory, but a critical one.
River Smith is former co-chair of the National Organization for Men Against Sexism (NOMAS),
former coordinator of Men Against Violence (a community centered feminist-based batterers
program), and author of A Conspiracy To Love: Living A Life of Joy, Generosity, and Power.
Tags masculinity, Rape, sexism, sexual assault, violence
Categories Uncategorized
1 Comment

3. Francis
April 19, 2014 at 4:22 pm
Interesting and serious argument to talk about. River as always got the point and explain
everything in a crystal clear way.
Reply
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